MEDICINE AND THE ARTS
( continued from page 19 )
The Louisville Medical College Building
The Louisville Medical College ( LMC ) was established in 1869 by returning Civil War physicians . Louisville was then entering a prosperous era of growth , and it became a medical education hub for the nation . LMC became a fierce rival to UofL , and the schools engaged in intense competition and public acrimony to attract students and public favor . Over the 1870s and 1880s , LMC occupied leased quarters in downtown Louisville . As the 1890s arrived , the LMC faculty , led by Dean Clinton Kelly , MD , decided to construct a state-of-the-art facility . It was designed to be both highly functional and an elegant architectural statement to attract student enrollment and elevate community standing . A site at Chestnut and First Streets , one block from City Hospital , was selected . The esteemed architectural firm of Clarke and Loomis , which specialized in Romanesque Revival style , was commissioned . The firm also designed several other fine examples of that style that are preserved today , including the Levy Brothers building , Saint Steven ’ s Church and The Conrad-Caldwell house .
The LMC building was constructed between 1891-1893 , with a dispensary added in 1894 ( Fig . 7 ). The design featured a Romanesque bell tower on the corner , multiple small spires , peaked gables , Roman arches framing its entrances and a main interior hallway echoing arched vaults of Roman public buildings and Romanesque Churches . The stately limestone block structure was immediately acclaimed a masterpiece of medical architectural art by national authorities , and it remains so today .
Unfortunately for the LMC faculty investors , the nation entered a major recession , the Panic of 1893 , just as the building opened . Also , the era of proprietary medical school proliferation was passing , as the public and professional leaders escalated criticisms concerning over-production of poorly qualified graduates . Over the next decade , pressures on the overabundant proprietary medical schools to merge or close intensified . Louisville was a prime target , and was called “… one of the five most rotten spots ” by AMA Council on Medical Education chair , Arthur Bevan , MD . In 1907-1909 , the five Louisville allopathic schools sequentially merged into the University of Louisville . The finest building of the five schools , the LMC artistic and functional masterpiece , became home to UofL for the next sixty years ( Fig . 8 ).
In 1970 , a new UofL Medical Campus was constructed on its present site , and the historic old LMC building was abandoned . It fell into disrepair and was slated for demolition to provide a parking lot for the adjacent high school . A heroic rescue came from the Jefferson County Medical Society , now Greater Louisville Medical Society ( GLMS ), which commissioned its Foundation to purchase and restore the historic structure . This effort was led by Richard Wolf , MD ; Robert Howell , MD and Executive Directors , Harry Lehman and Lelan Woodmansee . To these leaders , and the many physicians supporting their efforts , we owe a great debt of gratitude .
In 2016 the GLMS Foundation sold the building to Louisville ’ s Ronald McDonald House for expansion of housing to serve families of children being treated at Norton Children ’ s Hospital . Board
Fig . 4 The church building housing the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1850 .
Fig . 5 The Hospital College of Medicine building . It was used until 1907 for the school , then for the Salvation Army .
Fig . 6 The Louisville National Medical College building at Green ( Liberty ) and Brook Streets .
20 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE